Talk:Swan Princess and the Dire Tree/@comment-68.57.6.120-20160405181605
I did some research to see if there were any fairy tales that would give us a clue about what the “Dire Tree” stands for. While I didn’t find any stories referencing a “dire” tree, I did find the following tale from the Brothers Grimm called “The Juniper Tree," which is listed below. A woman wishes for a child as red as blood and as white as snow. She knows she is about to die, so she requests that she be buried under a juniper tree that her family has outside, as that is where she wished for the child. After a few months she gives birth to a son and dies a few days later. She is buried underneath the juniper tree. Her husband grieves for a long time, and gets married again. His second wife gives birth to a daughter, Marlinchen, but hates the son because he would be the one to inherit all the family's money, and she wishes it to be her daughter. One day, she offers Marlinchen an apple and she graciously accepts it. Then she has an evil thought and cruelly offers the boy one. As he reaches in a box to get it, she slams the box's heavy lid on him, beheading him. She then takes a white scarf and ties his head back to his body, and tells Marlinchen to ask him for the apple, and if he doesn't give it, to give him a good box on the ear. Marlinchen kindly asks for the apple, and then boxes him on the ear, resulting in the boy's head falling off. Marlinchen goes to her mother and tells her in sobs that she killed her brother. Her mother reassures Marlinchen and they both agree not to tell the father.The stepmother then turns the boy's body into a stew, and in some other versions, black sausages, without anyone knowing apart from her and Marlinchen. Marlinchen cannot stop weeping. When the father returns the boy has 'gone to stay with his mother's great uncle'. The father is upset that the boy did not say goodbye and tells Marlinchen that he will be home soon. The father eats the stew, suspecting nothing, and declares it delicious. Marlinchen, however, keeps the bones left over from the meal and buries them beneath the Juniper tree. A beautiful bird flies out of the tree. It goes and sings a song to a goldsmith about its cruel death at the hands of its mother and how caring his sister is. The goldsmith gives the bird a golden chain because the song is so beautiful. The bird also sings the same song to a shoemaker, who gives it a pair of red shoes, and to millers, who give it a millstone. It then flies back home and sings its song. The father goes out to see what is singing such a beautiful song and the golden chain falls about his neck. The father tells everyone that a beautiful bird gave him a chain. It sings again and Marlinchen goes out to see if this is true, and the red shoes fall to her. She comes in giggling happily and tells everyone how happy she is with what the bird has given her. All this time the stepmother is complaining of heat, claiming she has a horrid fire burning in her arteries. It sings a third time, the stepmother goes out, hoping for relief, and the bird drops the millstone on her, crushing and killing her. Another version is the “Rose Tree,” which is printed below. A long time ago there was a man who had two children; a daughter by his first wife and a son by his second. His daughter was very beautiful, and although her brother loved her, his mother hated her. The stepmother sent the daughter to the store to buy candles. But Three times, the girl put down the candles to climb a stile, and a dog stole them. When the daughter returned, her stepmother told her to come and let her comb her hair. The stepmother claimed that she could not comb it on her knee, or with the comb, and sent the girl for a piece of wood and an axe. When she returned, the stepmother cut off her head. She stewed her heart and liver, and her husband tasted them and said they tasted strangely. The brother did not eat but buried his sister under a rose-tree. Every day he wept under it. One day, the rose-tree flowered, and a white bird appeared. It sang to a cobbler and received a pair of red shoes; it sang to a watchmaker and received a gold watch and chain; it sang to three millers and received a millstone. Then it flew home and rattled the millstone against the eaves. The stepmother said that it thundered, and the boy ran out, and the bird dropped the shoes at his feet. It rattled the millstone again, the stepmother said that it thundered, the father went out, and the bird dropped the watch and chain at his feet. It rattled the millstone a third time, and the stepmother went out, and the bird dropped the millstone on her head. Based on the fact that these two stories seem to be the most prominent ones that involve the mention of a tree, I have a theory. What if Odile (the black swan) was Odette’s sister (Note: Odette is the white swan). Perhaps Odile willing masqueraded as Odette to fool the sorcerer that cursed Odette so that Odette could find the Frog Prince and break her own curse. And as punishment for her defiance, the sorcerer could have curse Odile to become a swan forever. Another theory I have is that maybe Odile was an unwilling participant in Odette’s demise (after all, Odette could have been murdered before she had a chance to grow old and die of natural causes.) Maybe, because of this, Odile was cursed to be a swan herself until such time that the curse could be broken (cue in the Fairy Tale Detective and her cowardly horse who will leave her once the going gets rough). Anyway, I hope the teaser comes out soon. But tell me what you think! If anyone needs to look up these stories, I found them on wikipedia.